Apathy is Death
by valbino
Summary: AU. SasuHina. Sasuke investigates the systematic killing of the Uchiha family, and ends up dragged into an even bigger fiasco than he ever imagined. Post-cyberpunk-ish. Incomplete. Warning: mentions of death/suicide.
1. Chapter 1

AN: thought I'd might as well start this since Dichotomy is coming to a close _soon. _I doubt I'll be updating it very often since it took me a good month to figure out this much.

PS –I'm looking for a beta, primarily to straighten out Dichotomy and Blindly. I'll be focusing on continuity/description rather than grammar, and I must warn that I'm extremely stubborn.

**Warning:** From the very beginning of this fic, death/murder/etc. will be a major theme, considering that its premise is _a murder mystery_. If things related to death/suicide/murder/etc. are a trigger, I would advise you to hit the back button. Like, _**now.**_

xxx

Sasuke Uchiha had been shifted from aunt to uncle, cousin to cousin, only for each of them to be slashed across the throat in the bathroom after four months. When he found his parents, the only thing he could do was cry, throw up and cry. He was seven when it first happened.

He remembered that earlier that day they had been talking about cousin Shisui at the table. Itachi had left the room extremely upset. Sasuke had seen the quiver of his brother's lip. Shisui had been drowned in a river, apparently a suicide.

That night, Sasuke had gone to the bathroom to pee, only to find his parents—throats slit, hearts cut out—in the half-filled tub. He had stumbled around the house, blind with tears. The phone was in his hands all of a sudden, his little fingers dialing the emergency number.

According to the EMTs, Itachi had been nowhere in the house, but was finally found a few blocks away, unconscious, and in shock. Both brothers were taken to the hospital to spend the night. Then the police, in vain, tried to keep them together as they were carted from house to house in search of any of the extensive number of family members scattered through Konoha were willing to take the two in.

Suddenly fingers were pointed at Itachi. They claimed that the thirteen year old boy was capable of cold blooded murder, and child services found him and sent him packing. He had only seen Itachi once since then, briefly, in middle school. Barely enough to ask and not get an answer.

So now, on the eve of his first day of spring break, he was packing his clothes—as many as would fit—into his sports bag. His eyes burned with unshed tears. With a start, he remembered that he would need to pack his allergy medicine; he was horribly allergic to dust and pollen, to the point where he could barely breathe.

But he wouldn't be able to get anywhere without money. He quickly checked his pockets—only a few coins, barely enough to pay for a bus fare. With some hesitation, Sasuke finally decided to take some of his cousin Hiromaru's money from the emergency safe. A hundred? A hundred-fifty? What would get him the furthest...?

When he heard the front door unlock as Hiromaru came home from work, he grabbed the whole pile, slammed the safe's door shut, and bolted back to his bedroom. His heart was racing as he stared at the enormous sum of money in his hands. Hundred-dollar-bills.

With a quick count, he surmised that he had just robbed his cousin of approximately two thousand ryo.

xxx

The following morning, he got out of bed, went through his morning routine, and sat down to eat breakfast. Hiromaru—a pale man with short brown hair and glasses, a high-ranking businessman—was reading the newspaper. One of the front-page headlines was about how some rich girl was missing...one of the clandestine Hyuga, he noticed on further examination.

He was somewhat acquainted with Hinata—one of Naruto's ex girlfriends—and more familiar with Neji, her cousin and the arrogant head of the martial arts club, a club Sasuke had been in briefly. He preferred soccer, and was even the soccer team captain.

Unconsciously, he leaned forward to read the article better, and ended up spilling his bowl of cereal.

"Damn it!"

"You need to be more careful," Hiromaru murmured absently. "You know where the cleaning supplies are."

"Yeah, whatever. Can I have that when you're done?" he asked, pointing at the newspaper.

"Huh. Wow, Sasuke. I never thought you were the type to read the news."

"An article on the front page seems interesting. ... So? Can I have it?"

"Sure, yeah, just clean up your mess." Hiromaru waved a hand in the direction of the closet.

Sasuke grabbed the cleaning spray and some paper towels and set to work, quickly getting the milk and soggy cereal sopped up. "Now can I have it?"

"Okay, okay. Gotta go to work anyway...Say, I saw you had your duffel bag packed. Going with Naruto somewhere?"

"Uh, yeah, he wanted to take me on a road trip to the middle of nowhere...like always. I decided to take him up on it this time." He shrugged, hoping that Hiromaru hadn't decided to take a closer look.

"Alright. Leaving today?"

"Uh, yeah. Maybe you could drop me off at his house on the way to work?"

"Alright. It's good for you to go out with friends, you know."

After a few minutes of shuffling around in his room to grab his soccer cleats—they could come in handy—and a pocket knife, Sasuke went to meet Hiromaru at the car.

Surprisingly, Hiromaru had volunteered to take Sasuke in, and now he had stayed there for two months. Surely the social workers were running out of nearby relatives by now. He thought maybe the four months thing was a reference to the old superstition of "four equals death". That wouldn't get him anywhere, since it didn't get the investigative teams anywhere. Maybe if he went near to Oto...There were a bunch of freaks there. They probably could tell him something.

He got in the passenger seat and slammed the door shut, not caring if Hiromaru reprimanded him. The ride to Naruto's was mostly silent. When they did arrive, Sasuke hopped out with a wave good-bye and prayed Naruto was home.

Naruto's dad—well, adopted dad—answered the door. "Oh, I expect you're here to see Naruto, eh?" He paused, half-turned. "_Naruto!_ Sasuke's here!" He nodded at Sasuke before retreating into the house.

Naruto half-ran to the threshold, pulling up his shorts. "Hi there! Damn, you're here early."

Sasuke pulled out his cell phone to check the time. "It's eight o'clock."

"Yeah, early!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I need a ride."

"Oh. Huh. I thought you had your license."

"I don't have a car."

"Oh, gotcha! Where did you wanna go?" Naruto scratched at his messy blond hair.

"The bus stop. It's too far to walk."

The blond frowned in suspicion. "I need to cover for you again, don't I? Are we gonna go on that road trip?"

"Yeah. Whatever." Sasuke tapped his foot in frustration. "Can you take me there or not?"

"On one condition."

"I don't have time for this."

"Keep me updated on what you've been doing. Your phone doesn't have internet access...maybe I could help you."

Sasuke was filled with relief; he had expected Naruto to ask to come with him. Something occurred to him just then. "Okay. Did you read the newspaper?"

"No? I never do. It's really boring. Why?"

"Hinata's disappeared. It was on the front page."

Naruto's jaw dropped. "You can't be fucking serious!"

"Read it yourself," he muttered, and thrust the front page into Naruto's face. The other boy sputtered and tossed it to the ground, where Sasuke picked it back up.

"No. I believe you." Naruto picked at a stray thread on his orange and blue jacket. A nervous habit of his. "Was she kidnapped?"

"You going to give me a ride or not?" He did not have time to talk about Hinata. There were only two months left to find

"Fine, fine, jeez. You're worse than Sakura."

x

Naruto's little red car pulled up to the bus stop. Sasuke got out and bade him good-bye.

"Hey, I expect you to keep me up to date, okay? If not, I'll come after you and drag you back here." Naruto smirked. "You don't want that to happen."

"Um. Okay. Whatever."

"I guess I'll go on that road trip with Sakura _alone_ then." He winked up at Sasuke, then drove off.

After a few minutes, Sasuke sent a text to Kakashi Hatake, his soccer coach, mentioning that he'd be away for most of spring break on a trip with Naruto and Sakura. He went to the nearest bench and dropped the duffel bag on the cement before sitting. The bus schedule was posted nearby; it would be 9:00 before the next bus arrived.

He got a text back a few minutes later, wishing him a safe trip and to bring him a souvenir.

Sasuke made a non-committal utterance and scrolled through his contact list, deciding what to do with the half hour he still had left to wait. Naruto would take a good twenty minutes before he got back home, so it would be useless to ask him to look up-

The bus had come early.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: First attempt ever at the whole "mystery novel" thing. I hope I'm doing a good job of keeping you guys at odds, but if you have a guess already, please don't spoil it in a review.

Standard warning of death/suicide mentions/unpleasant triggery things ahead, turn back if stuff like that bugs you (but I imagine some people like to be bugged). Even if it's pretty mild at the moment, some people have really sensitive triggers and I don't want to pull that if I can help it!

Flame me gently.

PS—I'm wanting a beta to go over what I have of _Dichotomy_ and Blindly and to work with me on planning Blindly so it's tighter and more coherent, PM me for deets.

Enjoy!

xxx

Sasuke sat down on the bus seat furthest from the door he could find that was not already occupied and pulled his phone out again. There was a text from Naruto.

—_Hey, u on the bus yet?_

—_Yeah. Need you to look something up._

—_wat is it?_

—_Find any news articles on my fam. tht go 10 yrs back_

—_all of them?_

—_yes._

—_Kk_

He let his phone drop into his lap and began picking at a loose thread on his tan cargo shorts out of boredom. It would be a long ride to the Konoha city limits. He glanced at the other occupants: commuters, college students, old women grocery shopping. One person in particular did not fit the pattern. She was the only one wearing a jacket. It was purple and beige, terry cloth; she was also wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat with a lily, probably fake, tied onto it with the ribbon. Her blue-black hair fell a few inches past the low back of the seat.

As the occupants dwindled, she remained seated, occasionally glancing out the window or coughing into her hand. Something struck Sasuke as familiar about her. His phone buzzed every few minutes, probably Naruto sending him links or snippets. Eventually, Sasuke glanced at his inbox, then texted a quick thank you to Naruto, and resumed his musings.

She pulled her backpack, black with purple flowers printed on it, into her lap. The bus stopped at the city limits point. When the girl bent to put on the backpack, the hat obscured her face. But now Sasuke was sure of who she was.

It was Hinata Hyuga, the apparently missing girl. She had been absent the week before spring break, but was always sick for some reason or other. Nobody had thought anything of it. After he stood with his belongings, he realized the bus was ready to move again and sprinted to the door, trying to catch up with her.

He finally found her huddling up against a light pole, fumbling with a cigarette.

"That's a disgusting habit," he said.

She looked up at him in fear. "What are you—"

"I'm not here to take you back home."

"Oh." Hinata sagged with relief. "I...I'm...I'm running away. I have, well..."

"Friends somewhere?"

She nodded and succeeded in lighting the cigarette. The acrid smoke partially obscured her face, and Sasuke realized that that, along with the straw hat, was keeping her from being discovered. Clever.

"Why are you...?" she asked, pointing at his duffel bag.

"Trying to find someone." Sasuke glanced around the almost empty area; the bus had moved on already. "We should get away from here...more you than me."

They walked out of the station and out of the city. They stopped again when they were a quarter-mile down the road.

"How is Naruto-kun?" she mumbled around the cigarette, not ready yet to give up the smoke screen.

"Fine. You could have come up with an alibi before running off." _Or at least picked better clothes than a skirt and sandals._ "So, where you headed?"

She was quiet for quite awhile, even when they began walking again. He guessed that she was gauging how much to tell him.

"Kirigakure," she finally said. "My pen pal lives there."

"Or is that your boyfriend? You of all people know the Academy doesn't have any programs like that."

She blushed, but did not admit the lie. Then: "Where are _you_ going?"

"I'm gonna stop by Oto. There's a powerful information broker there." It was not entirely a lie. He _could_ find the information he needed in Oto.

They came upon a side road and Sasuke motioned her to follow. It was quite beautiful with the cherry blossoms, and the asphalt was old and cracked in places. Good. That meant nobody except farmers and lost vacationers passed this way. On the off-chance that a vehicle might drive by, they gravitated to one side.

"I don't have a boyfriend," she said, in the tiniest voice possible. "My mother is in Kiri. Father forbids me from visiting or calling. He...he even blocked her number on my phone."

A truth for a truth. "I'm trying to find my brother. Whoever killed my family."

Her pale eyes became big white saucers. "I...Haven't they—"

"'Haven't they been looking for _years?" _He rolled his eyes. "Yeah. That isn't stopping them from dying, one by one. I'm going to find the killer and make. Him. Pay."

There was a distant whisper of thunder on the eastern horizon. To Hinata, it seemed to be an omen, an impression fixed in place by the far away seeping rage in Sasuke's eyes. Suddenly the smolder was gone and his eyes were their normal dark gray, pieces of stone.

"We should find shelter. That storm will be here in an hour," he murmured.

"Y-yeah. You're right…" She coughed wetly into one hand. "Hang on a little, taking my medicine."

Sasuke waited while she dug out a transparent orange pill bottle and a plastic thermos of water from her backpack; the whole process of taking her prescription took less than a minute. At his expectant look, she felt obligated to explain.

"I've had really bad bronchitis for a few weeks. My doctor's put me on antibiotics."

"Ah." So that was why she had not been at school the entirety of last week.

Sasuke took the lead in walking down the little road, looking for a suitable tree to hunker down under. All the _sakura_ trees were in full bloom, and a good rain would doubtless cause a lot of petals to stick to them. He recalled a time when his parents took him around the area for a picnic among the pink blooms.

_Itachi plucked a full blossom from a low branch and held it up to Mother. She smiled and tucked it into her hair, patting him on the head. Father held a little dandelion bouquet that Sasuke had made for her with mild amusement. Their yellow heads bobbed with every movement._

_Shisui had come, too. He brought his own lunch, a sandwich and a bright green apple. His eyes were a little sad every time he looked at Itachi and Sasuke playing together, the envy of an only child. _

Tears stung at Sasuke's eyes. Then he remembered. There was a small pond around a hundred meters from where they were.

"Follow me," he said to Hinata, and ducked off to the right, dodging the odd gnarled root as he jogged. "There should be some willow trees nearby."

He almost fell into it. It was not a pond anymore; it had become almost a lake since he had been there. Several willow trees dotted its coast, but one in particular, low to the ground with a curtain of branches to hide behind, caught his eye.

_Itachi tugged at the drooping branches of the willow before climbing up. He sighed in disappointment when he realized that willows did not grow tall, but wide. His feet slammed into the dirt with a loud thud, and he grimaced in pain because he jammed an ankle. _

A slip of paper, sealed inside a plastic bag, caught Sasuke's eye. It was near the edge of the water. He walked over and snatched it up, putting it into his pocket to read once they settled into the boughs of the willow. Hinata had already found a spot near to the ground, one of the biggest branches. She swung her feet to and fro with a relaxed air at odds with the melancholy of the area.

Sasuke found a nook near the trunk to curl up in. He carefully opened the bag and extracted the paper, slightly yellowed with age. With a shock, he recognized Shisui's handwriting.

"_Dear Family:_

_Do not fear for my soul, for I do this with your honor in mind. It is not as honorable as _seppuku, _but I do not have a katana at the ready or time to purchase one. _

_Farewell,_

_Shisui Uchiha"_

His hands shook. Two things stuck in his mind.

One: Shisui was usually not an adherent to the old notions of honor and duty in such an…archaic manner.

Two: Shisui had drowned in the _river._

The note had been planted there.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Any name-brand items you see here are used fictitiously, and I would even go so far as to say that I do not own any of the name-brand items you see nor would I want to own them. Bottom line: it's not product placement.

Also, I hate speech impediment!Hinata. A few messed up words, okay, but stammering incoherently, no. She didn't stutter unless she was around Naruto in the manga.

Standard warning of death/suicide mentions/unpleasant triggery things ahead, turn back if stuff like that bugs you (but I imagine some people like to be bugged).

Enjoy! : )

x

Sasuke heard the faint strains of a popular song to his left and saw Hinata fiddling with earphones. Her hands always were busy with something. Not the franticness of Naruto (though she may have picked the fidgetiness up from him), but a careful movement. Methodical. Her thumb brushed over the plastic covered wire in an attempt to untwist it. She probably indulged in needlework or played the piano.

He turned his attention to the device she was using to play her music. An iPhone. Sasuke had an idea.

"You said your dad didn't let you talk to your mom on the phone, right?"

She was not paying attention to him; her music was too loud. Sasuke shook her shoulder until she looked at him, stared her down until she removed the earphones.

"Hinata. Do you want to call your mother?"

Her eyes widened and a blush spread across her cheeks. "You'd do that…for _me_? I—I've hardly ever talked to you and—"

"My phone doesn't have internet access. No laptop."

"Oh." She seemed to wilt, to slump down into herself.

"Well? Could I use your iPhone to look some things up?"

"Of course…I mean…you just had to ask."

"Here." Sasuke placed his phone, an older device, into her palm. "Just hit _ok_ twice and it should unlock."

For a moment, her mouth opened and closed. Then she settled on a brief thank-you. Sasuke snatched her iPhone up and managed to get to the news site Naruto had mentioned. Archives from up to fifty years ago, scans of newspapers.

"H-hello?" Hinata's voice was faint. "Yes, mother…It's me. Hinata."

Here it was, an article detailing Shisui's suicide. Sasuke dug the note out of his pocket and held it next to the photograph of it; there was a caption that Sasuke ignored. The note in the photograph had different text at first:

_Itachi:_

_If you ever read this, there's somebody you need to watch out for. He might seem nice at first, but as soon as you trust him…_

"I'm fine. Yes, I've been taking my medicine. . . . Oh, um. No. He…yeah. We're still friends. Uh…I'm not sure if he's dating anyone else now…"

Sasuke glanced back at the caption. Invisible ink. That's what the extra text was written in. Message discovered by applying heat, it said. There had to be something he could use to create heat…fire? Fire would be tricky; he would have to be very careful not to burn up the paper and destroy the evidence.

"A friend let me use his phone."

Friend?

"From school. . . .Oh, uh, alright. . . .I love you, too. Good-bye."

Sasuke tucked away the information about invisible ink into the back of his mind and disconnected from the wi-fi on her phone. He made sure she did not see the note as they traded phones again.

"Thank you."

"It was nothing."

Then the rain started. It was a light pitter-patter at first, but it soon grew so heavy that it was raining through the limbs of the willow tree. A crack of thunder announced the arrival of the storm. Hinata stood as far away from the tree as she could without being outside the circle of limbs. Sasuke remained sitting in the nook.

"It's—it's dangerous to sit in trees during a storm," she squeaked.

"Look around you. There are several trees and power lines that are twice as tall as this one. Lightning strikes at the tallest objects."

"But still…" She bit her lip and looked anxiously up at their temporary shelter.

"Hey. Water's bad for electronics."

She blushed again and stuffed it into a pocket of her backpack. "Thank you."

A particularly loud rumble of thunder crashed around them. It rained even harder. Sasuke watched the sky with disinterest. Hinata jumped and cowered closer to the tree.

"How can you stand this? …I mean, the storm?" she asked, resigned to huddling near the trunk.

"There are things I've seen that would make this seem like a nice dream."

It dawned on her. Her face paled, lip trembled. "You mean…"

"Yeah. I don't think a storm's going to scare me anymore."

"D-do you…want to talk about anything?" She bit at her lip and glanced away from his hard gaze.

"Do _you_?"

"I guess not. Not r-really."

"Did you bring any food?"

"Actually…I brought some granola bars. And water. Um, I might have brought some lunch, too. I will need to…to check. Okay?"

She blushed and bent over her backpack, zipping and unzipping the pouches. Sometimes Sasuke noticed the way the rain fell on her hair, creating small diamonds before sinking into the blue-black depths. He rather lik—

"Here we go! I packed two bento boxes!" She giggled a little. "Would you like one?"

Unease tugged at him again, knowing that someone had foreseen Sasuke's visit there, or at least thought an Uchiha would visit. "Maybe later."

"Okay. The rain…it'll probably, um, ruin the box if I leave it out…so…it's probably a good idea to wait." She placed both of them into her backpack.

Sasuke's phone buzzed. He pulled it out and flipped it open. Sakura had texted him some inanity about whatever excuse Naruto made for him.

Hinata watched him. He was handsome, but not in the same way Naruto was, more aristocratic. Haughty, that was it. A straight and narrow nose, pale skin, thin lips. The eyes were the only unattractive thing about him, cold and distant and bleak, a gray so dark it might as well have been black. She quickly looked at her iPod when he flicked his gaze to her.

The oddest thing about Hyuga, Sasuke thought, were the eyes. Palest milk blue, nearly white. Pupils dilated, not uncommon in the rest of the family. Many were photophobic, or at least had a sharper eye for details. Just one more reason Neji was the top martial arts student at school; the same could be said for Hinata's careful plucking of wires, the deliberate way she moved.

The storm chugged onward after an hour; by that point, they were both drenched and miserable. The ground was soggy enough that hopping from patch of grass to patch of grass yielded splatters of mud up their legs. Sasuke hoped her backpack was waterproof.

Hinata glanced at her muddy sandals and sighed. Maybe another rain would wash some of it off. The hairs on the back of her neck raised. A chill swept down her spine. She felt someone else's eyes on her back. Sasuke was ahead of her.

When she glanced back, she could see no one.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Takahiro = boasting (or, using taka and hiro, "hawk of esteem")

Hamorebi = sunlight sifting through the tree leaves

Sorry for taking so long.

Standard trigger warning here, although I seem to be getting away a touch from what my original intent was.

Standard disclaimer regarding brand name tech here.

Enjoy! : )

000

There it was, a flash in the distance. They had been walking for hours, so the towers of hotels and restaurant signs caused a burst of speed and a surge of optimism. Sasuke noticed that Hinata had begun to limp from the differing pattern of steps on gravel. Those damned sandals.

"Sasuke?"

"What?"

"Something has been following us."

"Are you sure?" He stopped walking and let her catch up.

"No…but—but I feel a chill go down my spine. I've seen flashes of metal, too."

"Could just be random debris."

A few cars whizzed by on the road. They had decided to risk the highway when she used an application on her iPhone to help figure out where to go, once close enough.

"Or cars," he added.

"Why won't the feeling go away? You've felt it too, haven't you?" She bit her lip and glanced back again.

"Not really. _Your_ eyes aren't bothered by this light? I wish I brought sunglasses."

"I-I got a treatment for that. It helps. Mostly."

"We should keep moving. Maybe grab some dinner and then hitchhike."

"But there's a hub, um, about a kilometer away…couldn't we fake being older?"

"Maybe. What if they ask for ID? What then? Sixteen-year-olds have to have an adult consent."

She looked thoughtful, cupping one hand over the screen of her phone to see it. "M-maybe I could, uh, use my father's bank account to set up a room?"

"Clever. I have a few, ah, techniques to help with that."

"On second thought, it would be simpler to use some…" She flubbed putting the phone back into a pocket in her skirt and had to pick it up from the ground. "Some make-up. It wouldn't be hard."

"You can make it look real enough for hotel clerks to buy it?"

"Yes. Something I was taught while I was helping out with…with the thespians."

He looked at her, examined her face. Mascara, a hint of eye shadow, no eyeliner. Her lips seemed naturally red, almost red-violet. She blushed and looked away. He glanced down at her feet, still stained with dry mud. And now there were red welts, some bleeding, around the straps of her sandals. Blisters.

"Do you want to take a break?"

"No! I mean…we're just so close already." She giggled nervously.

Hinata tried not to dwell on her sore feet as they continued on. It was, at most, a half hour's walk away. The weather was nice. A few clouds drifted by. And then she felt the presence again. She turned her head to look back on reflex, saw it. Some kind of metallic insect. A dragonfly. Just a dragonfly.

But it was watching her.

Wordlessly, she brought her phone up and snapped a picture before it flew away. It was blurry, but still regognizable.

The sun was starting to sink in the sky by the time they reached the first hotel. It was one of the silver spires they had seen earlier, now a tower of orange fire. Probably far exceeding even Hinata's considerable budget.

"Where should we stop?" Sasuke mused.

"We could. Right here. I just need, um, a mirror for myself!" She sat down on a nearby curb and removed her backpack. Sasuke followed suit, letting his duffel crash to the manicured grass unceremoniously.

He watched her transform herself into a stressed-out college student, adding dark circles under her eyes and a dark brown eye shadow. She used something to make her plump lips appear thinner, paler as well, before pulling her hair into a bun and clipping her bangs out of her face. She put her jacket in the backpack and tossed the hat aside.

"It's your turn."

Sasuke thought he saw a glimmer of mischief in her eyes.

"Hm. I don't know if we'll have to do, uh, all that much. You look like, well, a college student."

She pursed her lips at him, leaned forward. She was wearing a white tank top with lace trim. He supposed she understood the effect it would have if the receptionist was male. How could she not?

"Oh! Let's do something with your hair." Before he could stop her, she grabbed two bobby pins and pinned his bangs behind his ears. "…Much better."

He snatched the little mirror for himself. The bobby pins were nearly invisible. He _did_ look a few years older. The mirror was put on the ground. "Are you sure they won't card us?"

"No. If—if I have to, I could always use my family's name to get around it. But…"

"You don't want to be found. Neither do I. The Uchiha name doesn't carry as much weight as yours, but I could still fall back on it by mentioning…" He cut himself off. His eyes grew cold again, and he aged a few more years.

"I have something to show you when we get our rooms."

"Room. It would be more cost-effective. Any way to get some of the dirt off of you?" He stood.

Hinata dug around in her backpack for something, anything. Her fingers closed on a few small packets. Cold. Squarish. Paper or foil wrapping. She gently pulled them out. Sanitary wipes. After wiping away most of the dirt with them, they were stuck into a different pocket of her backpack to be thrown away later.

She stood as well.

xXx

The hotel they settled on seemed a perfect fit, and was part of a well-known chain.

"Hey. Before we go in." Sasuke grabbed Hinata's arm. "Should we use aliases?"

"Oh…oh! You're right. Um. Different last names would work."

"I am Sasuke Takahiro, and you are…?"

"H-Hinata…Hamorebi."

"We might be better off booking separately as well, come to think of it. Even if it would cost more."

"What if I'm…on the news? They could have reported me as m-missing!"

"You have your school ID?" She held it out to him, puzzled.

He compared the picture on the card to the girl in front of him. It was plausible that, if Hinata's "disappearance" had extended past the local realm, someone may recognize her.

After all, Hyuga were rarely seen alone outside Konoha.

"You do have a point…Hinata Hamorebi. We can pose as—"

"Poor exam students?"

"—Cousins."

"We look nothing alike, though."

"You have sunglasses in that backpack? Wear them. Pretty bright out still. It's not like there aren't cousins with varying last names, anyway."

"Maybe…but…" She was fiddling with her phone again, looking something up.

"But what?"

"A lot of exam students go to this hotel."

"Claiming to be related puts less attention on us if we happen to book the same room."

"I could ask for adjoining rooms?" she mumbled, looking hopeful.

"How much money do you have on your person? I have about two thousand."

"Oh. Um. A few hundred. Some change?"

"Exactly."

"I have more in the bank. There's an ATM in this hub. I think."

"How much?"

"A lot more than…two…thousand." She cringed.

"Okay then. Adjoining rooms."

She dug a pair of sunglasses from a side pocket of her backpack. White plastic frames, opaque lenses. Big. She turned away from the view of the windows to put it on and murmured:

"I—I'll take care of it. Wait in the seating area. Please."

So Sasuke sat in a chair and pretended to read a technology magazine. He watched her—out of the corner of his eye—approach the receptionist (a man) and begin to talk, pointing at Sasuke once or twice. The man shrugged once and accepted her money, handing her two room keycards. She beckoned Sasuke over. They went to their rooms.


	5. Chapter 5: Interlude

AN: Time to make it more sci-fi ish :'D

I don't know all that much about hacking, so take the theatrics at the end with a grain of salt. (There is a difference between looking for a password versus trying to bring down a corporation's firewall and other cyberdefenses like encrypted passwords and stuff like that though)

And each character's code-name has a specific backstory, since I culled them from Japanese mythology, if you can't guess from other descriptions. xD

Enjoy!

000

A blonde man with long hair and pale eyes who went by the name Taimatsu scooped the robotic dragonfly into his hand, plugging it into his computer. Sure, his partner in Akatsuki wouldn't like his contraption destroyed, but who cared? There were more where that came from.

His room was a mishmash of half-baked animatronics and his attempts to mesh them with clay sculptures. The bed was littered with paper and metal bits. It was rarely slept in, the man preferring to use stimulants to keep going.

The computer beeped and ejected the little robot. It was a marvel, really, all those nearly microscopic silicone particles and gold and copper wires coming together in such a way. It would be even more of a marvel when its self destruct sequence was initiated, deepening the scorch marks already present on the floor.

So he tapped at one of its multifaceted camera eyes until it cracked. Soon it was beeping and smoking as the self-destruct activated, so hot that he could feel his fingers blistering. But he was in no hurry. The wings started glowing red by the time he sat it gingerly down on the cement. It screamed its swan song. The man barely had his goggles in place before it exploded, throwing shrapnel all over the room and setting things on fire.

He let it burn while he watched the footage the bug had picked up.

Road. Grass. Mountain. Sometimes a car or two. Then the glare of the sun, and the camera zoomed in on two figures walking. One lagged behind. More zooming, then the camera picked up a glare again. The mic picked up the crunch of roadside gravel, a hushed female voice. A forceful male voice.

Maybe Ikiriyo found something interesting. Stupid shut-in. But his ears pricked up when he heard a name.

"Sasuke."

"Naw, no way," the man muttered, chuckling. "Not Yatagarasu's little brother."

The girl spoke, fearful. "Something has been following us."

"You sure?" came the male voice, flat and cold. It sounded pretty Uchiha, alright.

More crunching. The sun's glare lessened. A glimpse of long dark shiny hair and pale legs. Must be the girl. The hair was bluish, so she probably wasn't another Uchiha. Most of them had been killed off by now, anyway. So what was Sasuke doing toting some girl around?

She stammered something off about feeling a chill up her spine, and Taimatsu had to snort at that one. What a _ditz_. Then the two started talking about boring shit like fake IDs or something; he was no longer really paying attention to them.

But for some reason, Ikiriyo was. That shut-in must have known something or something interesting was going to happen soon, because the camera eye was zooming in even more. Dangerously close. The girl turned around, and there it was—the milky irises and dilated pupils indicative of a Hyuga.

Then she snapped a picture and it was back to the scenery. Taimatsu turned around in his chair and finally noticed that part of his desk was on fire.

000

Neji Hyuga had a migraine, at first. By the time Uncle Hiashi entered his room, he was half collapsed on his bed, curled into a ball, homework forgotten.

"It was a simple job. You failed."

"U—Uncle…stop…"

"She ran off. You didn't stop her." The man was tall, pale, and imposing even in dark blue house robes. But his voice changed for a moment, seemed too brittle for someone like him. "How could you?"

"I…she snuck out in the…" Neji tried in vain to suppress his whimpers of pain. "The night! I…Everyone…every—they were asleep!"

Then, softer: "Please, stop."

Hiashi turned around, and pressed a button on the remote he kept up his sleeve. By the time the seizure ended, Neji had forgotten everything but the look in his uncle's eyes when Hiashi could only blame himself for Hinata's abscondence.

000

A figure hunched in front of an array of screens. His long black hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail. He made scarcely a noise except for the tapping of chipped-black-laquered-nailed fingers on keyboards. The monitors were reflected off his squarish glasses. Occasionally he paused to take a sip of cold coffee and nibble at a stale sandwich.

He had not slept for almost a week. He was beginning to hallucinate sounds and see things that did not exist. But that was alright, so long as his work remained flawless. He was close, so terribly close, to breaking through a corporation's defenses. This particular corporation contained information and resources that would be invaluable to Akatsuki.

He jolted awake, recalling a particularly vivid dream. Error messages began popping up on his primary working monitor. He pressed a sequence of keys with deliberation and muttered to himself:

"Amaterasu."


End file.
